International Students
by Knightcrawler
Summary: Mystique, disguised as Risty Wilde, watches Kurt, and thinks about her son. Very mild Kurt x Amanda.


**Author's Notes: This is my first one-shot story, and also my first 'canon-compatible' (as opposed to AU) story, set in the Evo Universe during Season Two. It's very slight Kurt x Amanda, and involves Mystique watching as these two interact, as I thought it would be interesting to examine Mystique's thoughts about Kurt as she watches him. Needless to say, the opinions of Mystique do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the author; I just find the character of Mystique fascinating, and potentially quite tragic. As always, all reviews and comments are welcome. **

_International Students_

Risty Wilde technically did not exist. It was an alias that the terrorist Mystique had initially used while living in Germany, several decades ago. Mystique had constructed an elaborate back-story for Risty, one that involved her living in various parts of the United Kingdom due to her father's job, and so any awkward questions concerning her lack of a Manchester accent could easily be answered by her claiming that she had also lived in Leeds, Swindon and Swansea, thereby effectively alleviating any suspicions that Risty Wilde was anything other than a perfectly normal foreign student, rather than a shape-shifter with a rather complicated agenda. Not that people generally asked too many questions concerning Risty's background, as a few forged papers, some false phone calls, and that fact that 'Risty's' family were supposedly living on a different continent, meant that most people never suspected that Risty was far more than she appeared to be. This had enabled Mystique to get close to the X-woman Rogue, as she knew that the young mutant would be important if her plans were to ever be fulfilled. Yet, much as she hated to admit it, even to herself, Mystique had grown to rather care about Rogue. Mystique and her dear friend Destiny had adopted Rogue years earlier, admittedly partly so that they could use her powers for their own ends, but even Mystique could not spend countless hours with Rogue, and not grow to care for her. Mystique hoped that, when the time came, Rogue would be spared. She did not care much about what would happen to most of the other members of the X-Men, but she did care about what would happen to Rogue.

Mystique was pulled out of her contemplation when Rogue playfully tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed over towards where Kurt Wagner, codename Nightcrawler, had just entered the school cafeteria, along with the rest of his gymnastics team. Rogue grinned at 'Risty' knowingly. "I've seen the way that you look at him," she whispered in her annoying Southern American accent, "you like him, don't you?"

Mystique stifled a groan, as she stared straight at Kurt Wagner. Oh yes, she liked him, she wished she could deny it, but he was the only other member of the X-Men, apart from Rogue herself, that Mystique actually liked, but not the way that Rogue believed.

Kurt was Mystique's son.

It was strange to watch him, from the other end of the cafeteria, as he laughed and joked with the rest of his gymnastics team, then pulled away from them suddenly, as though afraid that they would touch his skin. It seemed that Kurt had some sort of phobia about being touched or getting too close to people, but Mystique knew that that was far from the truth. Kurt loved physical contact, but knew that it was far too dangerous for him to allow ordinary humans to touch him, because if they did, they would realise that Kurt's skin felt furry to the touch.

Mystique was not the only member of her family that wore a disguise while out in public. Kurt's real appearance was...different. Like Mystique herself, Kurt had blue skin and yellow eyes, but unlike Mystique, he also had furry skin, pointed ears and a tail. His unique features were disguised by what appeared to be a digital sports watch. He always wore this upon his wrist whenever he attended Bayville High, as it created a holographic image, an illusion to cover his mutant form, and this image made him appear to be just another human teenager, no different from the countless other teenagers that attended the school. Mystique felt a vague sense of indignation that her son had to disguise his true appearance in order to be accepted by his peers, but she could not deny that the holographic image inducer had given Kurt a level of freedom that he could not otherwise have experienced, and so she felt grudgingly grateful towards Professor Xavier, as he had given Kurt the image inducer. Not that she would ever admit her feelings to Xavier, of course.

"That last move of yours was amazing," said one of the members of Kurt's gymnastics team, addressing Kurt, "honestly, have you ever thought about joining the Olympics, you could be great!"

Mystique smiled to herself. Kurt could outdo every Olympic athlete that had ever existed, his mutant powers included incredible agility and the ability to climb up walls. Yet Kurt had to hide his uniqueness for his own safety, which was another issue that rather irked Mystique. After all, why should mutants have to hide their talents? What right did these humans have to expect them to hide their abilities from the world? Someday, when Magneto's plans finally came to fruition, these humans would regret forcing mutants to hide their true selves. Mystique smiled to herself again, and looked up at where Kurt was grinning at his companions.

"That just seems like too much work," he said, "besides, I have too much school work to do to worry about that."

"Zhat just zeems like too much vork," one of the members of Kurt's gymnastics team teased Kurt by making an extremely exaggerated attempt at imitating his Bavarian accent. For some strange reason, Mystique suddenly felt a rush of anger, and wanted to approach the boy who had dared to mock her son, and berate him for failing to show Kurt any respect. With no small amount of difficultly Mystique bit her lower lip instead, and watched carefully to see how Kurt would react.

Kurt merely laughed, and a moment later, the rest of his gymnastics team were laughing along with him. Mystique felt her anger gradually dissipate, as it became obvious that the members of Kurt's gymnastics team were being merely playful, rather than cruel. Mystique still felt vaguely annoyed that mere humans would dare to mock her son in that way, but she decided that she would be merciful and ignore their teasing, just this once. Then she noticed another person approaching her son, this time a girl from one of Kurt's classes. The girl had long dark hair, brown skin and dark eyes, and she wore rather too much jewellery. Mystique had to admit that she was, however, reasonably pretty by human standards. Mystique was vaguely aware of this girl; she was called Amanda Sefton, and she was the sort of quiet, unimportant human that was fairly easy to ignore. She was the type of student who would sit at the back of the class, complete all of her assignments on time, and never cause any trouble. Mystique knew this, because she had, the previous year, worn the form of Principal Darkholme, the Principal at Bayville High School, and so had become at least vaguely aware of all of her students' strengths and weaknesses, in order to maintain her cover. Mystique watched, with mild interest and amusement, as Amanda approached Kurt.

"Um, hi," said Amanda shyly, smiling at Kurt as he looked up at her.

Kurt smiled, "Hello," he said, in his soft Bavarian accent, "can I help you?"

Amanda looked nervous, giggled softly, then reached inside her backpack. She removed about two dozen or so tickets, and began to nervously wave them just under Kurt's nose. "Um," said Amanda again, "I've been asked to give these to international students. You're from Germany, right?"

Kurt merely nodded, and watched with curiosity as Amanda sat down next to him. She handed him the tickets, and he began to examine them. Amanda giggled nervously again. "They're having a sort of introductory meeting for all international students on Thursday," she explained, still looking rather nervous, "just saying how much they value their international students and the contribution that they make to our school, that sort of thing," she smiled at him nervously, "to be perfectly honest, those things are usually fairly boring, but at least they have free food."

Kurt looked up from examining the tickets when she said that, and Mystique could not prevent herself from smiling. Even as an infant, Kurt had always had a healthy appetite, and, if what Rogue had told her was true, he was still a bit of a glutton. The thought of free food clearly made the thought of attending the meeting a much more appealing prospect. "Thank you," he said, smiling at Amanda sincerely, "I'll certainly try to make it."

Amanda nodded, then smiled at Kurt nervously again. She pointed towards the tickets once more. "If you could give these out to your international student friends, it would help me a lot," she said, "I know you know a lot of international students, some of them might be interested in attending this meeting."

Kurt nodded again, and turned his attention back to the tickets. "Okay, I'll see who else is interested in this, thanks," he said, and smiled at Amanda.

Amanda giggled nervously once more, and then waved goodbye, before returning to a small group of six or seven girls, who began giggling uncontrollably the moment Amanda joined them. Kurt gave the girls a rather bemused look, before returning his attention back to the tickets. He grinned, "Free food!" he said happily.

The boys from his gymnastics team exchanged exasperated looks, and one of them tapped Kurt gently on the shoulder. "Don't you ever think about anything other than food?" he asked him playfully.

Kurt gave him a puzzled look. "Yes," he said, "sometimes. Why?"

The boys exchanged exasperated looks again. "That girl, Amanda, she's crazy about you," one of them told him, "and all you can think about is free food."

Kurt blinked, and for a moment, looked rather bemused. Mystique smiled in spite of herself. Due to Kurt's rather unusual appearance, his adopted parents had done their best to shield him from dangers, and had attempted to protect him from any potential enemies. In this way, they had, in all intended kindness, attempted to keep Kurt safe from an often hostile and intolerant outside world. This meant that, despite Kurt's shameless flirting, in some ways he was still as innocent as the day that he was born. "Why?" Kurt asked.

The boys looked at each other again. One of them shrugged, "Why not? The workings of the female mind have always been a mystery to me, but it's not as if you're completely repugnant."

One of the other boys grinned at Kurt teasingly. "What Henry means is; there's no reason why she wouldn't feel attracted to you, I mean, apart from that silly accent of yours, you're pretty normal."

Kurt laughed nervously, and Mystique knew perfectly well why. Kurt was a bilingual blue mutant with the ability to teleport and climb up walls. 'Normal' was not exactly an accurate description of her son.

"Oh," said Kurt, suddenly looking rather embarrassed. "I hope I did not hurt her feelings," he watched as Amanda continued giggling with her small group of girls.

"I think she's fine," said one of the boys, "I wouldn't worry too much about it."

Kurt merely nodded. "Usually it's me doing all the chasing, and the girls running away from me," he admitted, smiling at his companions nervously, "this is all sort of new to me."

"He's European, they do things differently over there," one of the boys said, nodding knowingly.

Kurt shrugged, and then turned his attention back to the tickets in his hands. "What am I supposed to do with these now?" he asked.

"Well, just because she used them as an excuse to come and talk to you, doesn't mean that she doesn't want you to actually give them out to people," said one of the boys, "I guess you go to your international student friends, and ask them if they want a ticket to come to the feast."

"Right, right, of course," Kurt said, smiling nervously. He looked up from the tickets, and for a moment, he looked directly at Mystique. He smiled at her nervously, and made his way towards where his disguised mother had been watching him for the last few minutes. Mystique felt her heart beat faster as Kurt stared at her nervously; she felt almost sure that he would be able to see through her disguise, and that he would be able to tell that she was not who she appeared to be. She felt sure that he would be able to tell that her eyes were yellow, just like his, and that they both merely wore false forms while attending school. Mystique had heard that some mutants were immune to the mutant powers of their immediate family members. Did that mean that Kurt would be able to see through her disguise, that he would know that she was really his mother, and not just some random foreign student?

More importantly, did she, at some level, secretly want him to see through her disguise?

"Um, hi," Kurt said nervously, handing her one of the tickets, "you're from Britain, right?"

Mystique merely nodded, and realised, to her immense surprise, that she was suddenly unable to do anything else.

"Well, that's great," Kurt said. "There's this welcoming, sort of introductory meeting thing on Thursday, for all of us international students," he explained. "It's probably going to be pretty boring, but at least there's free food. Um, would you like a ticket?" Kurt smiled at her nervously, and Mystique reached for the ticket.

For one brief moment, she felt sure that she would touch Kurt's hand, feel fur under his hologram, and that he, too, would see through her disguise. But Kurt was careful to avoid physical contact while at school, and so was careful not to touch 'Risty's' hand as he gave her the ticket.

Mystique smiled at him, suddenly feeling a number of conflicting emotions; sadness and relief, shame and pride, and no small amount of regret. "Thank you," she said quietly.

Kurt continued to look her in the eye for a moment, but there was no recognition there. 'Risty' was simply another school student to him, one of Rogue's friends, nothing more. Mystique smiled sadly to herself. Perhaps it was best that way.

"Right, good," said Kurt nervously, "well, maybe I'll see you at the feast on Thursday then."

Mystique nodded, and examined the ticket absently, as Kurt waved at another one of Xavier's mutants. "Rahne, hey Rahne, we can get free food on Thursday!" he called after a Scottish mutant, and then ran towards her, waving the tickets in the air enthusiastically. "Free food!" he said again.

"What's the matter?" Rogue asked, watching 'Risty' carefully. "For a moment there, you looked really sad."

Mystique turned back to face Rogue, and hid behind her smile, just as she hid behind the persona of Risty. "It's nothing," she said quietly, "just thinking about my family back in Europe, that's all."


End file.
